NewEnergyNews: THE ENERGY YOU USE MAY BE YOUR OWN/

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

The challenge now: To make every day Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Impacts Of The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current Collapse
  • Weekend Video: More Facts On The AMOC
  • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Florida Insurance At The Climate Crisis Storm’s Eye
  • Weekend Video: The 9-1-1 On Rooftop Solar
  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 8-9:

  • Weekend Video: Bill Nye Science Guy On The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: The Changes Causing The Crisis
  • Weekend Video: A “Massive Global Solar Boom” Now
  • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 1-2:

  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
  • --------------------------

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    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

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    WEEKEND VIDEOS, June 17-18

  • Fixing The Power System
  • The Energy Storage Solution
  • New Energy Equity With Community Solar
  • Weekend Video: The Way Wind Can Help Win Wars
  • Weekend Video: New Support For Hydropower
  • Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

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    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

  • ---------------
  • WEEKEND VIDEOS, August 24-26:
  • Happy One-Year Birthday, Inflation Reduction Act
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Wednesday, March 19, 2008

    THE ENERGY YOU USE MAY BE YOUR OWN

    Whether or not oil supplies are peaking may be a matter of controversy but it is abundantly clear that cheap energy is nothing but a memory. Efficiency is a necessity. Beyond energy efficiency is energy scavenging. Max Poulshock, president, Thermo Life: "Energy-scavenging has been around for years, but because of the fuel crisis, everyone from big companies to small ones is looking to utilize it…It's a very hot topic."

    The idea is that any movement creates some kind of vibration or recoil from which watts or microwatts could be harvested and used for small tasks like charging a cell phone or driving a pacemaker. Even an existing temperature differential creates energy that can be harvested.

    Max Donelan, kinesiologist, Simon Fraser University: "People like the idea of generating their own power…If you do things in a clever way, you can get energy cheaply."

    As the article reveals, there is no end to the power of human creativity to find useful energy. That is fortunate because U.S. political leadership is lagging behind in the building of a 21st century energy infrastructure. As the author of the article says, “there’s not a watt to waste.”


    In the same way a hybrid car captures braking energy and turns it into battery-charging power, this brace captures leg-stopping energy and stores it. (photo by Greg Ehlers - click to enlarge)

    Finding Energy All Around Us
    Bryan Walsh (w/ Laura Blue and Bruce Crumley), March 6, 2008 (Time Magazine)

    WHO
    Max Donelan, kinesiologist, Simon Fraser University; Arthur Kuo, biomedical engineer, University of Michigan; Max Poulshock, president, Thermo Life; Steve Beeby, engineer, University of Southhampton/director, EU Vibration Energy Scavenging Project; Roy Freeland, CEO, Perpetuum; Jean-Jacques Chaillout, French Atomic Energy Commission; Rama Venkatasubramanian, thermoelectric expert, RTI International

    Vibration energy can be captured and stored as electricity. (click to enlarge)

    WHAT
    Energy scavenging: harvesting small and otherwise wasted watts and microwatts.

    WHEN
    The era of cheap energy is gone. Time to get energy anywhere it is.

    Via the thermoelectric effect, a temperature difference can drive electrons, generating an electrical current. (click to enlarge)

    WHERE
    - Beeby’s vibration harvester can collect a bridge’s vibrations to drive its illumination or power sensors that monitor its structural integrity. Or it could collect a heart’s vibrations to drive its pacemaker.
    - Chaillout thinks his piezoelectric device can be used inside nuclear reactor towers where there is a constant drip of condensing water after the reactor has boiled water into steam to drive the plant’s turbine.
    - Poulshock’s Thermo Life has a system to generate energy from temperature differentials.

    WHY
    - Donelan’s knee braces collect 5 watts (enough to charge 10 cell phones) of energy from gait applying the principles of regenerative braking used in gas-electric hybrid vehicles.
    - Beeby created a vibration harvester: Anything that vibrates moves a magnet inside a copper coil, generating an electrical current. Bridges vibrate. The human heart vibrates.
    - Chaillout has devised a way to collect a microwatt from each falling raindrop using a 25-micrometer-thick (a thin human hair) strip of piezoelectric (electricity-sensitive) material.

    Thermo Life wants to use the thermoelectric effect or another form of energy scavenging to drive medical devices. (click to enlarge)

    QUOTES
    - Steve Beeby, engineer, University of Southhampton/director, EU Vibration Energy Scavenging Project: "It's very unlikely on a big scale…It will never compete with wind power or anything like that."
    - Roy Freeland, CEO, Perpetuum: "[In the human heart] there's no source of power but plenty of vibrations…You can just fit [a pacemaker] and forget."
    - Jean-Jacques Chaillout, French Atomic Energy Commission: "When you add up all the materials and costs in powering, battery production and charging you save with [piezoelectric strips], it really adds up…"
    - Rama Venkatasubramanian, thermoelectric expert, RTI International: "Sixty percent of the world's energy is wasted as heat…If we could tap into just 10% of that, it would be a big thing for energy efficiency."

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